Win puts BJP in pole position for 2019

Sensing his party’s drive for votes in India’s most politically prized state had stalled, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared his schedule and thrust himself into the heart of the battle.

Amritsar/Panaji: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may have won in a landslide in Uttar Pradesh in the 2017 state elections, but its fortunes in two other states it previously held – Punjab and Goa – have not been so good.

Even before the counting was over, BJP chief Amit Shah said his party that rules the state would form the next government as well, even as its chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who lost the Mandrem seat, submitted his resignation to the governor.

In Punjab, BJP and its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) are on the retreat, leading in just 29 seats out of 117, down from 64.

Apart from Uttar Pradesh, results will be declared in the northern states of Punjab and Uttarakhand, the western state of Goa and the north eastern state of Manipur. Reacting to the five states’ results, Siddaramaiah said: “The BJP’s victory in UP is primarily due to the Hindutva agenda”.

None of the BJP’s opponents, including the ruling Samajwadi Party which had tied up with the Congress, managed a vote share above 23 per cent on Saturday, results showed. While the incumbent Congress has bagged 28 seats, its chief opponent, the BJP surprised poll observers by pocketing 21 seats. To add to the NDA basket, Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party too has won a seat in the Manipur assembly. Winning 17 seats in an Assembly of 40, the Congress has nearly doubled its tally from 2012. This poll gives SAD-BJP 7 seats. The India Today/Axis exit poll predicts the Congress will win between 62 and 71 seats and AAP wlil get between 42 and 51 seats. While AAP did not open its account in the tiniest state, it is the smaller parties and the Independent candidates that will now play a major role in deciding the political fate of Goa. The Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party won 47 seats and was ahead in three.

In that case, the lone Trinamool Congress MLA from Thanga, T Robindro Singh may emerge to be the kingmaker.

It now remains to be seen whether the BJP will be able to gather 31 seats to form a government that could deliver on Modi’s electoral promises.

On Saturday night, both the Congress and BJP were holding meetings to decide their strategy.

We need to rewind back to the ’90s to really make sense of this win. BJP is so far leading in 12 seats as opposed to 16 for the Congress. Analysts say that the Q3 earnings of India Inc were better than expected and sets the tone for good growth for subsequent quarters.